Author's Note:
'This is a contest entry for the Dracolov challenge! If you would like to enter you must e-mail Dracolov, her e-mail is in her profile. The last day to enter is 12/1/04. Please R & R (read and review) and thank you for reading my story.
Disclaimer:
I don't own any of the original Harry Potter character because I am not that creative...but I wish I was... I only own the plot and my characters.
Chapter 6: Pieces Come Together
The following morning, there was a knock on Draco's hotel door. Luckily for him, he knew exactly who it was, and was prepared. He had been anticipating this moment since his talk with Crabbe the night before. What was surprising to him was the choice of timing considering that, as a Slytherin, he was never up before noon. With wand in hand, Draco opened the door, using it as a partial shield.
"I hear you were looking for me, Malfoy," Flint greeted while stepping into the room.
"Yeah, I was. What are you playing at, Flint? An attack on a Ministry employee in the middle of Diagon Alley outside a popular night club? Anyone could have seen you," Draco chided him.
"What is it to you? You're a hotshot businessman, and I'm in the trenches, carrying on the cause. What were you doing in Diagon Alley, slumming it?" he retorted.
"I met some friends there after dealing with the same Ministry employee. It was at my urging that she didn't report the incident. But she could change her mind, now that it's morning."
"Then I shall have to see to it that she can't tell anyone anything then, won't I?" Flint said flatly.
"That's what I wanted to discuss with you. She needs my cooperation in something, so I can probably persuade her to forget the whole thing, but I want you to agree to back off," Draco proposed.
"And why would you want to do that for me?" Marcus asked, his interest piqued.
"Because I have some questions for you that I want answers to."
"All right, I'll bite. What do you want to know?"
"First, has anyone other that the Ministry come around asking question about Voldemort?" Draco offered him a seat, yet still kept a hand on his wand.
"Maybe." Flint toyed with him.
"Would you prefer to deal with the Ministry? Because if anything happens to the Mudblood, I have a witness to the attack who could let the Aurors in on a little secret." Flint's smile and upper hand faded at those words.
"Yes, someone has."
"Who?" Draco pressed, remembering the sound of Marcus' voice on the Ministry tapes as it sounded the same right now.
"Can't tell you that," he grunted.
"Why, are you afraid of Arthur Weasley?" Draco questioned.
"Power, of course. You can't imagine the power these people have."
"Who are 'these people' that you speak of? You have to help me for me to help you," Draco reeled him in.
"My alliances have already been made, but I can tell you that you already know all the players. Granger was somewhat of an opportunity presenting itself, not a target. So if you're asking me to pick sides, I'm afraid to say that it's them and not you." He stood quickly.
"No names, then. How about what information were they after?" Draco changed strategies.
"They want to know about Voldemort and his plans."
"Which plans?" Why was everything such a battle with this git?
"You have the interview. Which plans are you thinking about?"
"Look, I'm asking these questions because I don't know why this interview appeared in my company's research files. If I knew the answers, I wouldn't be asking you." He was losing his patience.
"And everyone said that you're so smart. Either they were wrong, or you just refuse to see the truth that's staring you in the face. Now that's all I can give to you. The rest you have to come up with on your own. Don't make the same mistake our fathers made," Flint finished.
Marcus' final words caused another piece of the puzzle to fall into place. The Death Eaters had followed one man blindly because of the promise for wealth and power. Had Draco unwittingly fallen prey to the same vice? Could it be that Flint was in Diagon Alley to meet with someone that he knew? Jacques, maybe? Draco didn't want to believe it, but he did admit that it fit and made sense considering Jacq's attitude towards Draco's findings. It wasn't until much later that he realized that he'd never gotten Flint's answer about leaving Granger alone. That would complicate matters even more.
---------------
Armed with the information from her conversation with Dumbledore, Hermione called and left a message for Draco with his secretary to call her on her cell phone at his first opportunity. She loathed waiting for anyone, so did the only thing she could think of to pass the time. Deep within the Ministry archives, she sat with the Ministry profiles of the last ten years of Hogwarts graduates.
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack, but she couldn't get over the fact that her savior had looked familiar to her. Most people hated tasks like this, but not Hermione. She lived for them. Page after page, she went through, then jackpot. Two years after she'd graduated, she found what she was looking for. Despite some subtle changes to the angelic face that stared back at her, she was pleased to meet Tara Balistery, one of Hogwarts most gifted students. And in notations below her picture was a note that Tara, or Trix to her closest friends, was signed on to go work for the IWB.
The IWB, or the International Wizarding Bureau, was a secretive and sometimes undercover band of witches and wizards that monitored illegal operations in the wizarding community. So her angel of mercy wasn't really just in the right place at the right time, but was actually looking after her. But if the IWB has an undercover operative in Malfoy's company, why send Hermione on her assignment? Did Arthur believe that she could have been compromised, or maybe that she'd switched sides? And why wouldn't they just tell her all of this?
Hermione was on her way back to her office when her cell phone rang with the long-awaited return call. Her mind was trying to process all the new information when Draco dropped another bombshell on her.
"Granger, I need to meet with you right away. I think I may have found something, and I want to go over it with you right away," he demanded.
"Ok, how about lunch?" she suggested eagerly.
"Where?"
"My place at noon. Do you need the address?"
"No, I've got it, and don't be late."
"See you then," Hermione chimed in before starting to hang up, but was stopped by the sound of his voice.
"And, Hermione, this could get dangerous for us both. Are you sure you want to do this?" he sounded anxious.
"Yeah, I'm positive. I think I'm being played for a fool and I want to know why," she said and then hung up. Malfoy was right at the center of this, and now he was offering his help for hers in exchange. Obviously, Dumbledore was right, which left her no other option but to play this thing out.
Before leaving to go home, she made one last phone call of her own. If Arthur was going to try to keep her out of the inner circle, then she was going to recruit a spy of her own.
"Hey, this is Hermione. I need to talk to you about something of a personal nature that I need your help on. Can we meet for dinner?" she proposed cheerfully, not wanting to raise suspicion.
"Sure. Just name your time and place," the voice replied without hesitation.
"Why don't we meet at the Leaky Cauldron at seven, ok?"
"Great, see you then."
"Thanks, bye." Hermione finished.
"Bye." the voice said and then hung up. Hermione promptly Apparated home for her meeting with Malfoy.
------------------
Once she arrived at home, she put out some place settings and began to prepare a grilled chicken salad. A light lunch for some heavy conversation and planning, she thought. Then she chose a light almond vinaigrette dressing and set the meal on the table with nice white wine. With nothing else left to do, she sat at the table and waited for Malfoy to get there.
A few minutes later, Draco arrived with a pop and surveyed his surroundings. Although quite small in comparison to what he was used to, he still found it to be acceptably furnished and well taken care of. He sat at his own place setting to begin his talk with her.
"Thank you for meeting with me and for lunch," he told her honestly.
"What exactly do you need my help with?" She cut to the chase.
"I believe that you were right about certain researchers working towards body transfers, but this is not my doing. I need your help to find out why they want to do this," he explained without malice.
"This is your company. Why don't you know? Who would be able to do this without your knowledge and support? Why don't you just put a stop to it?" she questioned.
"There are other investors at work here, shall I say. And I think I found the connection, but I need to know what they're up to. I can't really go into more detail with endangering you and everyone you know in the process," he answered sincerely, not truly knowing why except that he needed her intellect.
"I think I may have found a connection myself," she informed him.
"You know about Marcus?" he blurted out.
"Flint? No, what about him?" she replied, confused.
"After his attack on you, I asked another friend some questions and found a connection between him and my associates. Who are you talking about, then?" he responded back apprehensively.
"I did the same thing, but my investigation lead me to Tara, a girl at you table last night. What's Flint's connection?"
"He was the focal point for not just the Ministry's investigation about Voldemort, but another group's as well."
"Who?" she pressed further, trying to think of who it could possibly be.
"I don't want you involved that far, Hermione. Just let me handle that, ok?" he told her sternly.
"Why did you just call me that?" She had just now realized that he had not only called her by her first name now, but he'd done it earlier, too.
"I don't know, I guess after last night that I thought it'd be ok. Is it or would you prefer that I go back to Granger?" he answered her nonchalantly, even though he hadn't actually known that he'd done it.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me everything. How can I help you with the why if I don't know the who? Please, Draco, just tell me," she begged.
"My father had told me stories about a secret organization that had been around for centuries. It had become a sort of hobby for me all throughout school, and then when everything happened with my parents and the Ministry, it turned into an obsession to find them. About four years ago I did, and they helped me with my company. I have to come to believe now that they have been using my company to further their own interests. Now I need to find out what they're up to so I can try to get away from them," he told her.
"Who is this organization?" Hermione had read many books and maybe she'd heard of them before.
"The Priory of Sion."Another piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
"I know of them but I never believed that they are real. Why would you do something like this? How did they help you?" Hermione bombarded him questions.
"I wanted back what the Ministry had stolen from me, and they needed a business to invest in. They wanted to take the magical community to it's rightful place at the top of the hierarchy and I believed that's where we belonged, so it all made sense," he defended himself.
"Don't you see how your prejudices have cost you and your family so much, an yet you never change. So what can I, the Mudblood, do for you?" she mocked him.
"Whether
or not I like Muggles is irrelevant. I want to stop this and I'm
asking for your help, so now you have to decide if you want to help
or not. What's it going to be?" He sat and waited for her
answer.
------------------
These decisions never came easily for Hermione as she was prone to analyze things to death. On one hand, she was on assignment by the Ministry to infiltrate his company by all means necessary, but they had kept her in the dark about several things. On the other hand, Malfoy had been decent to her and even went so far as to protect her at one point. But was risking her life worth saving his company if he was still an insufferable git? In the end, she decided that protecting Muggles from the Priory took precedent over all other things and turned her gaze back to Draco.
"I will help, but its for the good of Muggles and not you." she scolded him.
"I don't care what your motives are just as long as you're on my side. Shall we eat now or talk strategy?" he asked with little emotion.
"Eat if you will, but I have some more questions for you. For instance, what do you know of the girl Tara that was at your table?" She moved closer to him as he ate, hoping to get a better read on him.
"Just that she's one of Jacq's girls. They are rumored to be vixens on assignment. They seduce men and women alike for their secrets. However, Tara's an odd one. She's never sent to seduce, but more to punish, and the other girls don't really care for her because she's 'very private', as Marguerite put it. What did you find out about her?" he asked in between bites of his salad.
"Nothing that is discussed here leaves this room, right?" she confirmed.
"Absolutely," he reaffirmed.
"She graduated from Hogwarts two years after us and was noted to be going to the IWB. I believe that she may be working undercover for them and the Ministry, but I've never heard anything about it, so I am going to check with a friend in the Ministry to see if I can get more information on her," she explained.
"If she's undercover, then wouldn't the Ministry know about the Priory?" he questioned.
"That would depend on how much information your friend gives to his informants, wouldn't it?" she reasoned.
"Possibly. He obviously is very cunning about how much he tells people about his plans, but surely someone undercover would be looking for clues at all times," he calculated.
"We need to find her and speak to her, but I have to wonder how much she would tell us without approval from the Ministry or the IWB?" Hermione speculated.
"We'll have to recruit her to our cause. When will you meet with your friend?"
"Tonight for dinner, but I don't think she'll know anything tonight. I'm thinking that I'm going to have to get her to do some spying for me," she explained.
"I don't suppose that I can go with you?" he asked seriously.
"Why would you want to?" Hermione was baffled by the request.
"Because I think if she knew that we were working together, then she might be more inclined to help. Besides, you're going to be asking a huge favor of her and she's going to want to know why," he pleaded his case.
"You don't have the best reputation, as you are well aware, so can that really help? She'd probably think that you have me under some kind of spell." She was trying extremely hard to sway him against the idea.
"How do I know you won't omit some important details? Or worse, that you won't tell me everything?" he elaborated.
"I could say the same about you. I don't think that you'll want me around when you talk to your friends, snooping around and arousing their suspicions. Will you?" she countered.
"My friends and associates are much more skeptical than those in your rose colored world. They're leery of everyone, even me. But fine, we'll do it your way. When you're done though, you have to come by my hotel to update me on what happened, ok?" he succumbed a little too easy for her comfort.
"Fine, where are you staying?"
"The Plaza Suite at the Berkeley."
"Figures," she muttered under her breath.
"Yes, well... thank you again for lunch and I'll see you soon," he said with all his proper manners and then Disapparated with a pop.
Once again, she was left with only her thoughts to entertain her, and she wrote a rough timeline of events to help her sort through all the new information. What jumped out at her most was the four-year gap between Draco's first contact with the Priory and the recent events that blew their cover. What had taken them so long, she pondered. The only thing that screamed out to her was that something was unearthed either by Flint or Tara. They were the newest players in this game, after all, but one of them could also be a dead end.
--------------
The petite but strikingly beautiful girl of about 23 had been waiting at the Leaky Cauldron for about ten minutes when Hermione arrived. After a series of unwelcome advances, she had moved to the farthest corner table and was thankful to see Hermione's appearance through the fireplace. She practically knocked her over with an overzealous hug and drug her over to empty table, anxious to hear what it was that her friend needed from her.
"I'm so glad that you're here. This is a truly unsavory place for an unchaperoned lady such as myself. But enough about that, how have you been since the meeting in the Minister's office?" the young woman asked her.
"A bit out of sorts, to be honest. The meeting with Malfoy went well enough, but some other things have come to my attention, and I fear that the Minister was not completely honest with me about my assignment," she explained to Sapphire, or Avery Thomas as she was known at work.
"Really, what gives you that idea? You know that he would never intentionally mislead without just cause."
"You graduated from Hogwarts a couple of years behind me, didn't you?" Hermione went on.
"Yes, two years to be precise. Why?" Sapphire inquired.
"Do you remember a girl by the name of Tara Balistery?"
"Sort of. I didn't know her well, but she was the top of our class so I knew of her. Why?"
"Have you seen her around the Ministry or with Arthur?"
"Not that I recall. Again I ask why?" Sapphire was losing patience with her now.
"I think that she's involved in an undercover operation that's connected with Malfoy and his company, but no one said anything about it in the initial meeting."
"And even if she is, what does that have to do with you?"
"Well, the Ministry had some odd information about Narcissa's Cure and I think that she's the one who gave it to them, but not even Draco was aware of the situation. So it's left me with a lot of questions as to what my role in this really is," she explained.
"Draco??? Shouldn't that be Malfoy, or Mr. Malfoy?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Just a slip of the tongue. Seriously, Sapphire, I need your help. I need you to do a little snooping around Arthur to see if she's the informant and what else the Ministry might know about her," Hermione pleaded with her.
"Why don't you just ask him yourself?"
"Because I believe that he's a little biased when it comes to Malfoy, and I fear that he may shut me down if I ask too many questions outside the scope of what I was told to do."
"What else aren't you telling me?"
"I'm afraid that I can't say as it may endanger you if I do, but just know this: this could be the biggest scandal since Voldemort's return, and it involves some very secretive people," she replied vaguely.
"If you can't tell me everything, why should I stick my neck on the line for you?" she questioned.
"You're my only hope of getting this information and hopefully you are my friend. Please trust in my judgement and me. I really need you to do this for me."
"I'll do what I can, but if I find something, will you agree to tell me the rest?" she proposed.
"All right, but only if you find something that needs to be explained. Also, please don't mention anything of this meeting, ok?" she begged.
"Fine, but at some point can I meet the infamous Mr. Malfoy?" she inquired wide-eyed.
"Funny that you should ask that, because he requested that he be present at our next meeting with the results of your recon mission."
"Most definitely. I'll call you if and when I find anything. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date to meet," she winked.
"Thank you again. I won't forget this," Hermione told her.
"Let's hope that I don't live to regret this," then she was gone, leaving Hermione to second-guess involving such an old friend. Oh well, some things are just unavoidable, she tried to console herself. She was getting ready to leave when another person made their presence known to her.
Author's Notes: welcome new reader Cleverwitch and I hope you enjoy this....Thanks to my beta Kat for changes to the Prologue, Chapter 1-3...if you want to read the updated versions please check them out....and of course, thanks to my most loyal reader slyswn28...I love your reviews soooo much...and I agree about Crabbe and Goyle for that matter...hope you enjoy this chappie......
